Men's Tennis

MEN’S TENNIS SPLITS A PAIR OF CLOSE MATCHES, WINS CONFERENCE OPENER

Mar 09, 2013

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento State men's tennis team split a pair of 4-3 matches, including beating Northern Arizona in the team's Big Sky Conference opener. The Hornets fell to UT Arlington this morning before coming back a couple hours later to knock off the Lumberjacks.

Sacramento State, which is the middle of a stretch that will see the team play five home matches in six days, moved its record to 4-8 overall and 1-0 in the Big Sky. The Hornets have used a lineup consisting of five underclassmen in every competition this season, and nine of the team's 12 matches thus far have been decided by 4-3 or 5-2 outcomes.

In the team's win over NAU, the Lumberjacks held a 3-1 lead in the match until the Hornets posted three straight singles wins from Marek Marksoo (6-4, 6-4 at No. 1), Aliaksandr Malko (6-4, 6-4 at No. 2) and Tom Miller (6-1, 4-6, 6-4) to claim the victory. Playing in his first singles match of the season, freshman Henrik Raag won in straight sets at No. 6 by a 6-2, 6-1 score.

Northern Arizona won the doubles point by virtue of taking two of the three doubles matches (Malko/Marksoo was the only Hornet tandem to win in doubles).

The loss to UT Arlington couldn't have been much closer as three different matches went to a tiebreaker in at least one set. That included the match-clinching point for the Mavericks. With the match tied at 3-3, it all came down to Court #3 where Carlos Arbiza eventually outlasted the Hornets' Roy Brandys, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreaker). Brandys was playing in just his second match of the season at No. 3 after spending the majority of the season as the team's No. 4 player.

Marksoo (7-6, 6-3 at No. 1), Malko (6-4, 4-6, 7-6 at No. 2) and Miller (6-3, 6-2 at No. 6) all picked up singles victories for the Hornets. UT Arlington also won the doubles point by virtue of a tiebreaker as the tandem of Soren Goritzka and Marek Pesicka beat Malko/Marksoo, 9-8 (4) after the teams split the first two doubles matches.

With two more victories today, Marksoo won his sixth straight singles match and improved to 8-2 at No. 1 in the team's lineup. Malko has now won three straight, and four of his last five singles matches.